1. What is Dancing to the Darkest Light about and why did you write it?
It is a memoire, It starts from our lives as Persian Jews in Iran, the revolution, our escape, arriving in the land of opportunity, making it here and then tragedies. The worst kind. One after the other. The last chapter ‘Dancing With Life’ is about living for the ‘Whys’ in your life and not the ‘Why nots’ and still seeing beauty in life.
2. Tell us about your life. What was it like to leave Iran?
The situation was so dangerous in Iran that when we left, we are happy, even though we left everything behind. We had each other and our freedom. That was enough for us.
3. What was is like getting your bachelor’s degree in Business and master’s degree in Art Gallery Management while taking care of your first two kids while they were in diapers.
It was the ultimate act of juggling. But I would not have it another way. I think it is very much the attitude of an immigrant. We saw this great land of every opportunity and …why not? We did not have that possibility back in Iran, I was happy to able to do it. The hard work was just an inconvenience that I learned not to pay attention to.
4. What does family mean to you?
Everything! Family is my backbone, my caisson, my brick wall, my safety net, my savior, my to go to therapy, my source of joy and the place for love.
5. How did you overcome so much tragedy?
By trying to fix ‘me’ and not the people or the conditions around me. Because I realized those unfortunate events were not in my control. Such was life and I had to change accordingly. As Rumi said, “it is your path and yours alone, people might walk it with you but no one can walk it for you”.
6. What did you learn about yourself and others throughout all of this?
That the potential of a human being is limitless. If you dig in yourself you can discover so many qualities. That how we see ourselves is just like looking at the tip of an iceberg sticking out from the ocean and thinking that is the extent of it. Just put your face inside of the water and see how deep down it goes. That is us!
7. Anything else you would like to share?
So much more, That we should not take life so seriously, that life is really not interested in us. We think we are important. Life is just interested to go forward. That life is!
‘ Pantarei”, ‘everything flows’ Heraclitus, 6th century BC.
That no matter what …life is still beautiful, that the past is in the past which ‘Was’
and the future is ‘Not Yet’ , enjoy what you have ‘Now’ and not yearn for what was.
AND A LOT MORE!
A whole book more!